PALESTINIAN COMPLAINT - REMOVAL OF POLICE POST

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000996 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/UNP, DS, AND NEA/IPA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OFDP ASEC PLO UN SUBJECT: PALESTINIAN COMPLAINT - REMOVAL OF POLICE POST ¶1. Ambassador Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine, called Ambassador Wolff on November 9 to register his concern with the New York Police Department's decision to reduce and then eliminate police coverage in the security booth located in front of the PLO Mission to the UN. Mansour said he was visited late last week by one NYPD and two Diplomatic Security officers, who informed him that effective November 1 police presence in front of his Mission would be reduced from round-the-clock coverage to working days only between 10AM and 6PM. After November 30, the NYPD will no longer man the security booth, although we understand that the booth itself will remain in place. Mansour understood that the decision was based partly on a revised security assessment and as a cost-saving measure. He said that he told the DS agents that he was concerned with the loss of police protection and that he intended to relay those concerns to Ambassador Khalilzad. ¶2. Mansour told Ambassador Wolff that he disagreed that the security situation at his mission had changed. The Mission continues to receive threatening phone calls and emails. The upcoming meetings in Annapolis and their results could exacerbate the present security situation. He plans to send Ambassador Khalilzad a protest note, which will request that the former police presence be reinstated. USUN will forward the note to IO/UNP when received. ¶3. NYPD has made the same reduction in police presence in front of the Cuban Mission, and has eliminated it completely at the residence of the UN Secretary-General. The Turkish Mission will receive reduced coverage beginning on December 1 with elimination of police presence on January 1. USUN understands that IO and the regional bureaus are discussing with DS what might be done to reverse the NYPD decision. Khalilzad